


Scars

by ScreechTheMighty



Series: Talk Some Sense To Me [8]
Category: Apex Legends (Video Games)
Genre: Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Fluff without Plot, I guess this is a series now, Not Beta Read, Scars, headcanons, superfluous star wars references
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-28
Updated: 2019-05-28
Packaged: 2020-03-20 14:29:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,520
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18994477
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ScreechTheMighty/pseuds/ScreechTheMighty
Summary: The truth goes both ways. (OR my headcanon about Elliott's facial scars plus an explanation for a headcanon seen inTangled.)





	Scars

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Memorial Day, have some fluff.

Calling Elliott a liar felt disingenuous. He wasn’t always honest, sure, but he wasn’t pathological. He was a performer; he had a persona. The lies he told were in service of that persona.

Wraith had always seen through him, but that wasn’t the same thing as knowing the truth. The truth was always harder to find than a lie. Now that they were close, it was getting easier.

There was only one problem: the truth went both ways.

“Aren’t you hot?” Elliott asked her one night. They were sitting on Wraith’s floor as Elliott braided her hair. “It’s been a million degrees lately and you haven’t changed your outfits.”

She understood why he was asking; it _had_ been warm, and she had continued to wear long sleeves and gloves despite that. It wasn’t so bad indoors, but it could be uncomfortable outside. “I’m okay,” Wraith said.

Elliott was, at first, quiet. She knew him well enough by now to know that the silence didn’t mean he’d bought it. “Is it, like…a religious thing?” he asked finally.

If only it were that simple. “I’m just not comfortable showing my arms,” she said.

“Oh. Okay.”

This time, he did drop it. But now that he’d brought it up, Wraith couldn’t get the subject out of her head. She rubbed at her wrist as he pinned up the braid. _What do you think?_ he'd asked her earlier. _Princess Leia on Endor?_

_I don’t know. Surprise me._ Wraith didn’t really care what she looked like. She asked him to braid her hair because it was soothing. It gave them a chance to talk, to be… _normal._ Being normal wasn’t usually in the cards for them, especially when she was still trying to figure out her boundaries. He had always been patient with her. He was being patient with her _now_.

 She was grateful for that, even if she had a hard time expressing it.

“ _And_ done.” Elliott gently squeezed her shoulder and passed her a mirror. “You know, they say it’s not possible to improve on perfection, but I think I may have cracked the code.”

She wouldn’t go that far, but it _did_ look nice. As Wraith tilted her head to get a better look, she caught sight of Elliott beaming at her. He looked pleased with himself and… _fond._ Fond in that way he only looked around her. Fond in a way that made her feel safe.

She had seen his face a thousand times, but today, she noticed his scars more clearly than ever.

“What happened to your face?” she asked.

Elliott’s fond look turned confused. “Did I never tell you that story?”

“You told me _a_ story.” Wraith set the mirror down and turned around so she was facing him. “But I’m pretty sure you didn’t really get in a fight with a mercenary in the name of protecting your bar.”

“ _Oh_ …haha, yeah.” Elliott grinned sheepishly and rubbed the back of his head. “It’s…actually kind of boring? I was screwing around with my brothers and someone started throwing rocks…”

“ _What?_ ”

“We were bored kids! It seemed like a good idea at the time! Anyways, uh, I think…Henry? Beamed me in the face with one. Oh, man, the look on my mom’s face…” He laughed quietly and shook his head. “We were in so much trouble, but…yeah, that’s how I got this one.” He touched the scar on his cheekbone. “This one…” Next he touched the one on his nose. “I ran off my mouth at some guy and he decked me. A friend got my nose set okay, but it still scarred.”

Wraith nodded. All of that made much more sense than his original story—not because she _didn’t_ think he’d get into a fight to protect his bar. She just knew he’d do a better job protecting his face if he did. He was always talking about how it was the real moneymaker. “What about this?” she asked, gently touching the scar under his eye.

Elliott hesitated. “…d-dropped a…” He had to clear his throat before he continued. “Dropped a box on my face one time.”

_Oh._ It took a _lot_ of self-control to not burst out laughing. He already looked embarrassed and she didn’t want to make that worse. “Wow,” she said in a monotone that was a bit too forced.

“Yeah, I know, butterfingers…” Elliott took her hand and smiled, his embarrassment softening to self-deprecation and fondness. “I was tired. Sue me.”

Wraith hummed in response, letting herself smile just a bit. Moments like this were still strange to her—quiet, happy, having someone look at her like she was a full person and not some nameless, blank wisp of a thing. Like she wasn’t…

_Wasn’t just a wraith._

“Ground control to Wraith,” Elliott said, squeezing her hand gently and jarring her from her thoughts. “You still with me?”

“I’m here,” Wraith said. Her wrists suddenly itched. Even with the air conditioning on, the long sleeves and gloves felt too hot. “If I show you something…”

_Do I really want to do this?_

Maybe. Maybe not. But she _had_ to, that she was sure of. She couldn’t keep it from him forever. Now seemed as good a time as any.

“…do you promise not to freak out?”

_Now_ he looked worried, as much as he tried to hide it. “Yeah, of course.”

Wraith took a deep breath and pulled her hands away. She took her left glove off, then her right, and started rolling up her sleeves. Despite her initial fear, she found she felt _better_ as removed the layers, exposing the full extent of her scars. They both started in the center of her palms, a star bust of discolored skin with tails like comets that ran down her wrists to the crooks of her elbows. The way the tails branched off in fractals made it look like she’d been struck by lightning. She heard Elliott’s breath catch at the sight of them. She couldn’t blame him for the reaction; she knew how it looked.

“I don’t remember how I got them,” she admitted. “I know…I know I didn’t do it to myself. And I think they have something to do with…what I can do.” Her fingers clenched, the discolored skin tensing with the flex of her muscles. “But I don’t remember anything clearly.”

There were a lot of things she didn’t remember clearly, but this was the only one with an outward expression; something she had to cover to keep the full extent of her emptiness hidden. The only people who’d seen them before now were the doctors at the mental hospital she’d escaped from. Almost everyone there had assumed they were from some bizarre self-harm.

That was only because they hadn’t seen them spark and itch when her powers flared up.

Elliott was uncharacteristically quiet. When Wraith glanced up at him, she saw his lips moving, as if he were trying to think of the right thing to say but discarding every possibility. “Do they…hurt?” he asked finally.

“Sometimes.” Elliott grimaced. Wraith could already see the apology forming. “It’s okay. Hey…” She took his hands. “It’s really okay. I’m not bothered by _them._ Not really. It bothers me more that I don’t remember where they came from.”

Elliott nodded. “And you don’t want people asking when you don’t have an answer. I get that.” His thumbs rubbed over the scars on her palms. The gentle pressure was soothing. “I mean…they could just mean you’re some kind of chosen one. That…” He grinned brightly at the baffled look on Wraith’s face. “That happens all the time in movies, right?”

“Oh, if it happens in _movies…_ ” Wraith laughed. She’d been doing that a lot more lately. She still didn’t know how he managed to get her to laugh, to smile. But she appreciated it. “I guess I’ll have to give up my Apex career to save the Frontier, then.”

“Do I get to be your sidekick?”

“Actually, I was thinking about asking Pathfinder.”

“ _Ouch._ ” Elliott pulled his hands away to press them dramatically over his heart. “I’m deeply wounded. What have I done to deserve this?”

“You’re too good at doing my hair. I can’t risk losing you.” Wraith moved until she was sitting beside him and leaned against his shoulder. “You can be my at-home support.”

Elliott’s mock offense faded quickly. “Well…” He cleared his throat and wrapped an arm around her shoulder. “I d-don’t…uhm, no complaints here.”

Wraith hummed faintly and closed her eyes.

She had put off telling him because she was worried about how he might look at her…about how _she_ would feel by the end of it. Empty and unsure. But despite her exposed scars and the admission of yet another thing she couldn’t remember, she felt safe. She felt content. She couldn’t say she felt _whole,_ but she didn’t feel the ache of the blank spaces as profoundly.

“Thank you for telling me,” Elliott said softly.

“Thank you for listening,” she replied.

She could get used to that feeling.

**Author's Note:**

> You can find me on tumblr at screechthemighty and watch me reblog fandom gifs and talk about how many times I've died on Apex Legends today (the answer is many, but I won twice so that's nice (truth be told my squad carried me both times)).


End file.
